Ball Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Ball Corporation second quarter 2021 earnings call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Thursday, August 5, 2021. I would now like to turn the call over to John Hayes, CEO of Ball Corporation. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kathleen, and good morning, everyone. This is Ball Corporation's conference call regarding the company's second quarter 2021 results. The information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. Some factors that could cause results or outcomes to differ are in the company's latest 10-K and in other company SEC filings as well as company news releases. If you don't already have our earnings release, it's available on our website at ball.com. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may also be found in the notes section of today's earnings release. The release also includes a table summarizing business consolidation and other activities as well as a reconciliation of comparable operating earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations. Now, joining me on the call today are Dan Fisher, our president, and Scott Morrison, our executive vice president and CFO. I'll provide some introductory remarks. Dan will discuss packaging and aerospace performance and trends. Scott will discuss key financial metrics. And then I'll finish up with comments on the outlook for the company. To all of our global employees, thank you for your hard work and for staying safe. We know the past 16 months have been trying on everyone, and it's not lost on us that we are not out of the woods yet. COVID is still with us, and the science of the vaccine speaks for itself. Please get vaccinated if you can. If not for yourself, then for your loved one and coworkers. In addition, I also want to thank our packaging and aerospace customers, suppliers, and their employees. Collectively, we continue to navigate our supply chains COVID-related restrictions in certain regions due to the ongoing Delta variant, reopenings in other regions, and we are experiencing all of this while deploying new EVA accretive investments, innovations, and technologies that will increase the global availability of sustainable aluminum packaging, as well as deliver national security, environmental, and climate intelligence. Our long-term prospects are right on track relative to our expectations. Our business has been very resilient, and we have an exciting future ahead of us. In the second quarter, comparable diluted earnings per share were up 32%. Comparable operating earnings were up 22%. Global beverage volumes were up 13%. Global aluminum aerosol volumes were up 20%, and aerospace finished the quarter with record backlog. Looking to the second half, growth continues across our global beverage businesses. Aluminum aerosol volumes continue to rise as regions reopen. Our cup team continues to roll out our ball aluminum cup at more than 20,000 points of retail distribution and is working with even more stadiums and arenas to ramp up the food service side of the business. Aerospace has multiple launches, and hiring continues at an elevated pace to staff aerospace contracts and aluminum packaging manufacturing projects in the U.S., South America, and Europe. While we're still working through several supply chain disruptions in our aerospace and North and Central American beverage packaging business that Dan will speak to, we are and will leverage existing contractual terms and conditions to recoup higher input costs in future periods in both our packaging and aerospace businesses. We have an even greater conviction in our ability to significantly grow diluted earnings per share, EVA dollars, cash from operations, and return of value to shareholders in 2021 and beyond. To that end, and as Scott will elaborate, we are accelerating our return of value capital allocation strategy, given the conviction we have for our future performance. Second quarter 2021 highlights include our global beverage businesses completing the startup of six lines, including three in North America, one in EMEA, and two in South America. Our global aluminum aerosol volume is increasing 20%, as I mentioned before. Our CUPS team executing national retail distribution of the Ebola aluminum cup in all 50 states and providing 16-ounce, 20-ounce, and 24-ounce aluminum cup to numerous sports and entertainment venues as COVID restrictions moderate. Our aerospace team winning new contracts to lift contracted backlog to a record $3 billion following a significant win late in the quarter. Our 2030 sustainability goals announcement, including ambitions to achieve net zero carbon emissions, 90% global recycling rates, and 85% recycled content, as well as establishing regional D&I goals and a vision of circularity for the aluminum beverage can. Our business is hiring nearly 1,600 people net year-to-date to support our long-term growth and normal attrition due to retirements. Our board increased our quarterly dividend 33% and reiterated our $35 million share repurchase authorization. And we plan to purchase in excess of $500 million of stock this year while deploying $1.5 billion in EVA creative growth capital investments. In summary, Ball continues to operate from a position of strength. Our team is executing at a high level, standing up new greenfield plants, speeding up lines in existing facilities, bringing new aerospace infrastructure expansions online to support our increasing backlog, and hiring amazing talent to join our teams. To everyone listening, best wishes to you and your families for good health and continued safety. And with that, I'll turn it over to our president, Dan Fisher. Dan? Thanks, John.

I echo your thanks to our employees, customers, and suppliers. Our global HR, environmental health, and safety professionals and our own personal actions continue to keep our team safe and vigilant. The teams are doing a great job managing accelerated growth, large-scale capacity additions, and intermittent supply chain challenges. We're entering the second half with a lot of momentum, a few manageable challenges, and a visible path to strong performance throughout 2021 and beyond. Second quarter global beverage volumes up 13% versus 2020, an ongoing strength in EMEA and South America, offset startup costs in North America, retail marketing investments for our retail cup launch, the later-than-anticipated award timing for a new aerospace contract, and higher year-over-year costs. Demand for aluminum beverage cans continues to outstrip supply around the globe. Our global engineering and operations teams are executing at a high level. We're on track to exit 2021 with an additional 12 billion units of new installed capacity, and we recently announced global projects, all of which underscore our investor day commentary. Cans are in high demand, contracts are in place, and Ball is well positioned. Our focus on speed to market Talent, training, systems, and operational readiness is paying off as we continue to ramp up new capacity on time and on budget. To all the teams listening, our time is now, and you are making this happen. Keep up the great work. As John mentioned, we have hired an additional 1,600 colleagues year to date, with the majority of them located in the United States. Our investment in talent, training and development, and immersion into the ball culture and EVA mindset is a vital part of near and long-term success. We are blessed as an organization to attract this talent in the current environment and are committed to their success. Can demand across all beverage categories remains strong. Our focus on improving customer experience by expanding can availability via new production coming online and providing our network latitude to build adequate inventory will continue to aid that trend. We also continue to make significant progress in operationalizing and commercializing sustainability. Following EMEA's lead in 2020, our operations in South America and North America are on track to achieve ASI certification by year-end 2021. And each of our global businesses set specific regional D&I goals as part of our 2030 Sustainability Goals announcement. Proof points of our progress include women representing over 40% of the new team in one of our Brazilian plant investments. In an aerospace, over 40% of our summer interns and new hires representing ethnic and gender diversity. We commend our global colleagues' commitment to our sustainability journey. also wish to recognize our supply chain's recent investments and sustainability-focused initiatives. As we discussed throughout 2020, growth in our global beverage business is accelerating, and our product portfolio continues to support our customers' new brands, as well as broaden the addressable market for aluminum cans, bottles, and cups. Given market characteristics and our project execution, I continue to be very positive about our ability to achieve our goals, and deliver low double-digit global volume growth and global specialty mix in excess of 50% in 2021. We continue to see the global industry growing at an annual rate in excess of 6% for the foreseeable future. Ball is well positioned to capture growth given our scale and innovation in the world's largest can markets. Looking out, contractual terms and conditions are favorable and long-standing pass-through mechanisms are in place for aluminum and other items. And as we said on last quarter's earnings call, now we execute. Now for a few brief comments on each region. In North America, beverage second quarter volumes were up 5% versus 2020 and up 6.4% versus 2019 during the quarter. Earnings were up slightly, and as expected, higher volume offset the combined effect of project startup costs and operational efficiencies in plants brought about by unsustainably low inventory entering peak season. Glendale and Pitson are both operational, and as of today, three lines are running, and Glendale and Pitson's first line is coming up its learning curve. Both plants will exit 2021 with four can manufacturing lines installed, and our Bowling Green Inns manufacturing plant will start up early in the fourth quarter of 2021. The remaining half of the anticipated $50 million in startup costs will flow through in the second half of 2021. Across our broad customer base, beverage can demand is strong in all brand categories, alcohol, soft drinks, energy, and water. Despite recent chatter on hard seltzers, nothing has changed about our plans. We expect favorable growth trends across all categories to continue, which will drive more EVA enhancing opportunities supported by long-duration contracts with strategic customers and large regional accounts. In the near term, the work to build adequate inventory levels will offset some of the benefit of having new capacity online during the third quarter and position the business for success. Looking out longer term, Ball will build another beverage can manufacturing plant in the southeast. Our new North Carolina facility is supported by long duration contracts with strategic global customers. We are excited to invest alongside our customers and anticipate the facility to come online in late 2023 or 2024. In EMEA, Segment volume for the second quarter was up 18% versus 2020 on easier comps given prior year's volume declines due to COVID onset timing and were also up due to customers adding new can filling investments. Versus second quarter 2019, volumes were up 9%. Across Baltimore's EMEA business, demand trends and positive momentum continues. We foresee European beverage can volumes up high single digits throughout second half of 2021 and beyond. Future growth will be driven by new and existing categories utilizing cans and additional regional plant opportunities emerging to fulfill market demand in the biggest can markets across EMEA. Our new greenfield plants in the UK, Russia, and Czech Republic are supported by long duration contracts for committed volumes with global and regional key accounts. Our EMEA team is executing very well and fully prepared for these exciting investments. In South America, second quarter volumes were up 15% versus 2020 and up 16% versus 2019, given easier comps due to the prior year's COVID impact and despite cooler than normal seasonal temperatures and delivery channels in large cities limiting alcohol purchases. We continue to see more earnings upside in South America. As John mentioned, Two new lines ramped up in existing facilities in South America during the quarter, and the Frutal Brazil plant is preparing for a late third quarter startup. Additional investments both in Brazil and throughout the region are also anticipated. Similar to our prior commentary, we anticipate can growth in the mid-teens for the full year, and additional growth will be possible once we have more capacity online. In summary, Our global beverage team did a terrific job navigating some uncontrollables during the quarter while also executing as well as we can on the things we can control. Our aluminum aerosol team did an excellent job supplying growth across EMEA, resulting in 20% higher volumes in the second quarter globally versus 2020 and 12% higher volume versus 2019 for the same period. The team continues to manage varying degrees of reopening status in Brazil and India. In addition, the business continues to amplify the sustainability credentials of our extruded aluminum bottles to deliver innovation across multiple brand and product categories, including the second quarter rollout of refillable, reclosable personal care packaging at a leading U.S. mass retailer. Our CUPS team continues to raise awareness, establish distribution, execute initial sell-through, and invest for continued growth in 2021 and beyond. In addition to the 50 states retail launch John mentioned, the team continued to invest in the Party Starts Here marketing campaign to engage and educate consumers about infinitely recyclable aluminum cups. We continue to expect our cups business to turn a profit starting in 2022. Turning to aerospace. The team continued to win contracts, and year-to-date contracted backlog is up 25%. The aerospace business dealt with lingering effects of inefficient supply chains. Though exiting the quarter, we saw notable improvement with key subcontractors, and we are excited to book a key contract win at the end of the quarter. This win and the trajectory of recent performance sets up the business for notable sales and earnings growth in the second half of 2021 and beyond, in addition to margin improvement beyond 2021. At Ball Aerospace, we are managing challenges, nurturing our culture while capturing the future. We appreciate all of the amazing work being done by not only the aerospace team, but everyone across the organization. And with that, I'll turn it over to Scott.